Aging-associated changes in cerebral vasculature and blood flow as determined by quantitative optical coherence tomography angiography.

Aging-associated changes in cerebral vasculature and blood flow as determined by quantitative optical coherence tomography angiography. Neurobiol Aging. 2018 Jun 22;70:148-159 Authors: Li Y, Choi WJ, Wei W, Song S, Zhang Q, Liu J, Wang RK Abstract Normal aging is associated with significant alterations in brain's vascular structure and function, which can lead to compromised cerebral circulation and increased risk of neurodegeneration. The in vivo examination of cerebral blood flow (CBF), including capillary beds, in aging brains with sufficient spatial detail remains challenging with current imaging modalities. In the present study, we use 3-dimensional (3-D) quantitative optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) to examine characteristic differences of the cerebral vasculatures and hemodynamics at the somatosensory cortex between old (16 months old) and young mice (2 months old) in vivo. The quantitative metrics include cortical vascular morphology, CBF, and capillary flow velocity. We show that compared with young mice, the pial arterial tortuosity increases by 14%, the capillary vessel density decreases by 15%, and the CBF reduces by 33% in the old mice. Most importantly, changes in capillary velocity and heterogeneity with aging are quantified for the first time with sufficiently high statistical power between young and old populations, with a 21% (p < 0.05) increase in capillary mean velocity and 19% (p ≤ 0.05) inc...
Source: Neurobiology of Aging - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Aging Source Type: research